Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author— "an immensely gifted writer and a magical prose stylist" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times)—offers his first major work of nonfiction, an autobiographical narrative as inventive, beautiful, and powerful as his acclaimed, award-winning fiction.

A shy manifesto, an impractical handbook, the true story of a fabulist, an entire life in parts and pieces, Manhood for Amateurs is the first sustained work of personal writing from Michael Chabon. In these insightful, provocative, slyly interlinked essays, one of our most brilliant and humane writers presents his autobiography and his vision of life in the way so many of us experience our own lives: as a series of reflections, regrets, and reexaminations, each sparked by an encounter, in the present, that holds some legacy of the past.

What does it mean to be a man today? Chabon invokes and interprets and struggles to reinvent for us, with characteristic warmth and lyric wit, the personal and family history that haunts him even as—simply because—it goes on being written every day. As a devoted son, as a passionate husband, and above all as the father of four young Americans, Chabon presents his memories of childhood, of his parents' marriage and divorce, of moments of painful adolescent comedy and giddy encounters with the popular art and literature of his own youth, as a theme played—on different instruments, with a fresh tempo and in a new key—by the mad quartet of which he now finds himself co-conductor.

At once dazzling, hilarious, and moving, Manhood for Amateurs is destined to become a classic.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World, Wonder Boys, Werewolves in Their Youth, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Summerland (a novel for children), The Final Solution, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Maps and Legends, and Gentlemen of the Road.

Micahel attended University of California-Irvine where he earned his MFA. His awards for the Pulitzer Prize was for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, in 2001.

He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, the novelist Ayelet Waldman, and their children.

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO KYLE AT HARPER COLLINSI HAVE THREE COPIES OF THISAMAZING BOOK TO GIVE AWAY.

RULES:

--U.S. Residents Only--No P.O. Boxes, Please--Email address must be in your comment--ALL comments must be separate to countorthey will count as one instead of possibly two.

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: Comment and name a memoir you have read and enjoyed OR someone you wish you could read a memoir about (when it say "a memoir" it means ONLY ONE ENTRY with this comment...some are sending more than one)

+1 MORE ENTRY: Blog or Tweet about this giveaway and leave link in your comment!

+1 MORE ENTRY: Follow on Google Connect (see left hand sidebar) or tell me how you do follow

+1 MORE ENTRY: Watch for my review and come back an leave a comment for the BONUS ENTRY

I love reading memoirs! Right now I am reading Eat Pray Love and am really enjoying it. As for one of my faves, well it was a tough one to read, but definitely compelling and a book that should be read - A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer.